So I guess I'm going to dive into cooking now

Since Dodge is gone..... I guess what I have now is cooking. And I'm already thinking I'm pretty good just need to refine a bit. So on Saturday I'm doing a large dinner party for my family. 6 people will be in attendence.... I'm not nervous just a little apprehensive because it is going to be a large fancy thing.

Here is what I have so far as a menu.

Lobster Bisque

Vodka Marinated Beef
Fennel mashed potato's
Saute'd veggie of some sort

Fresh fruit and chocolate pastry cream tart

I have the beef on hand, everything for the tart but the fruit, and will have to get some lobsters (2) for the bisque. Tonight when everything finally cools off I will be getting my list of things together taht I'll need to go shopping for on Weds. I don't want the meal to be too heavy but I did it anyway by starting out with Bisque. ;) God I'm horrible sometimes.

Fun times ahead!

Day by Day

I'm starting to look at breeding farms. If I can figure out a good place I'd like to have a yearling and just work on groundwork for about 2-3 years until its old enough to ride. I dunno. I just dunno.

Anywho, so I quit drinking for 2 weeks starting on Weds of this week. After Dodge died I drank wwwwwaaaaayyyyy too much and ate like shit. So I went to Whole Foods and bought a body cleansing kit thing, quit the drinking and crazy eating, and am now on Day 3 of the program. I bought some fresh basil for homemade pesto tonight for dinner. MMMM I love pesto. Throw some chicken in there and bam instant dinner. YUM.

I have more to talk about but I'm so like eh, on actually typing. I may get some done this weekend.

I still want her back......

Well, it has been 4 days since she passed away. I didn't think I would, but she has been on my mind every single day since her passing. Every 5 minutes she crosses my mind. I want her back so bad. I loved the way she smelled, call me crazy, but I really did love nuzzling up to her neck and just sitting there breathing in her smell. Horses don't smell too bad when they've been out on pasture and she was perfect. Sigh.

I know I want another horse. I just can't right now. While if I was to kick and scream enough I could have one, I don't. I need time to get her out of my mind. I am telling myself to wait a year, research bloodlines, and make a educated purchase. I know on the next one I will be dropping a pretty penny and I'm ok with that. I know I want another Walker and I know I want it to be grey. I will not be buying for color alone though, I'll drive to Washington to get my next one if I have to. Remember, I said I am going to drop some money.

In other news, Sunday I am going to get her tack. I don't want to go into the tack room to do this, it will be so effing hard. All of her hair is all over it. I'm going to store it all in Joe's mom's basement for the time being. It stays cool and relatively dry down there. I mean I'll check on it as often as I can, but I think it will be fine.



Onto other subjects I guess. This blog will take a totally different turn now....

So hard.

Dodge passed away the morning of Sept 20th, 2009. She got colic and it ruptured. I am going to miss her more than anyone will ever know.

My lord I accomplished things!

Since I was home last night for the second time in a row since god knows how long, I was actually able to do things. I did some wash, folded clothes, OMG FINALLY MOPPED THE KITCHEN FLOOR. Sorry, you can tell I'm a little excited about that? I was also able to finally get the kitchen squeeky clean, instead of my halfass cleaning. It's amazing what happens when a.) your not completely drained and b.) you have some time.

Fish update! Alright so I know I've never talked about my fish, in fact 2 months ago I was sick of the tank. Since I couldn't get it sold I decided to get just 2 fish, a white oscar and a black one. The black one died :( I'm pretty sure one of the two africans left gave him a hard time. I'm currently looking for another large oscar to put in there with the white one. It's the only way they have a chance. I need to get rid of my African's too but am not sure where in world to put them. Hmmm I need to call and see if anyone will trade me.

I'm also very optimistic about tonight with Dodge. Walk, walk, walk. Then woah. Since she almost has walk down pat I feel I can start her woah. I'm also going to switch her to the curb bit and see how she likes it. I know I will feel better to not be yanking every five minutes on her mouth. (well not yanking, I just don't direct rein with as much ease as indirect) If anything I'll put her back in the Tom Thumb. I don't want to, but she was ridden in one for over 15 years..... it may be easier to give into it. I dunno.

My goals for Dodge? Just be able to do anything with her. I want a trusty horse to jump up on anytime and ride anywhere. Right now I'm lucky to have 5 focused minutes from her. Sigh. Nobody told me horse ownership was like this.

I also ordered her a new blanket yesterday since the first one is too big, hopefully this one will fit just right. I also ordered a riding crop, not for riding but for discipline. Honestly I never used one till the other day when she did her whole "I am not going to walk" thing. I like it for a quick easy discipline with her. I'm not beating her at all with it, just getting her focus back onto me.

I am also hoping my BO will be there tonight so I can ask her to help me with Dodge, or go on a short ride with me. I dunno.

When Frustration gets in the way

I will admit it. I let myself get frustrated with Dodge on Sunday. If I get frustrated, Dodge gets frustrated, and then we both are fighting each other. It is a no win situation and just stresses her out, gets the training going nowhere, and makes me feel like utter crap.

So I feel horrible about it and decided to leave her alone the next few days to reset myself and her. I know what I did wrong, I am trying to do too much too fast. Instead of focusing on one aspect of training I'm trying to do 20, which is just not going to happen. I started thinking about when I trained Buck, we worked on one command over and over until he got it, then moved to the next one. This is what I need to do to Dogde. I can't ask for a walk, stop, and trot all in one day, it's too much.

I will be out there tomm to work on walk again. Which she is getting quite well. She seems to remember "easy" and the walk is improving. She still trys to bolt the other way, but I think is understanding that it is unacceptable. Once walk is improved we'll move to the woah again. I was going to start with woah, but walk kinda just happened.

I talked to the old owner last night who said she has always been ridden in a Tom Thumb, never a regular snaffle. I would prefer a western bit just because its how I ride, so I may go ahead and throw the curb on her on Weds after our lunging work at walk to see how much she improves. The old owner said she never really had a stopping problem, so I think Dodge is running through the bit because she can. I'm thinking that woah wasn't one of her best instilled commands. I'm working on beating it into her skull (not literally here!) but in the meantime I want to be able to know that stopping can be acheived. She is such a freaking sweet sweet horse. Damn her sweetness damn her!

Dodge

Went to see her last night and we worked her. She sweated!!!!!! First off we lunged her with "walk". My lord she actually walked. Took damn near 20 minutes but she got that walk means walk. I lunged her and my friend lunged her as well. That's all we focused on was walk.

Then we rode. Low and behold she actually walked! Now my friend is a much better rider than I, I will probably try to sneak her out more often just to get pointers and what not from her. I rode and we walked as well! BREAKTHROUGH!

On Friday we will just work on walk again. I don't want to confuse Dodge by changing it up. I want a solid walk from her when I ask for it. We'll probably stick with boring walk for a bit. Next we'll work on the run walk, but that will be a couple weeks.

My BO also told me yesterday how sweet Dodge is becoming! Yay! It has been a long LONG road to get Dodge back to being handled. Two months ago I was almost ready to give up on her and now I'm looking forward to training with her. She is the best damn horse ever in my humble opinion.

That's all I got for the moment. I'll be back out on Fri for walk lesson two, so I'll let you know how that goes then!

Oh life

I am so excited to go to the lake this weekend. I mean really excited. I don't even care that there will be kids there or that there could be chaos. I'm just happy to get the hell out of Louisville for a weekend. I still need to pick up a few items for food but woot for leaving!

Tonight should be fun! Meeting up with few friends for beer and food at our favorite local bar. Nothing crazy, just hanging out.

Been "dieting" lately too, i.e., watching what the hell I put in my mouth. Amazing that I actually can eat healthy! What an insane idea!

I am also super happy that I paid all the bills for the month of Sept with the two paychecks that just went into the bank. Meaning all of our paychecks in Sept have no home. (well technically I will use the last paychecks in Sept to pay all of Oct bills) So we still have money to throw ont he student loan! And we're still ahead! Joe was so worried that we couldn't do the horse and pay off student loans but we're doing just that and we're fine. This doesn't even include the second job!

Which, thankfully I am going to quit. Don't need it at this time. If I need one again I'll get it, but thank god I will have weekends back! I'm so happy!

Let's see ... other junk....

Oh we got a new tent! Our old one lasted us 3 years and it technically still has life in it left but it lost a pole and the zipper is pretty much busted. So we went ahead and dropped some dimes and got a 4 season tent. It has aluminum poles! 1 million times better than the fiberglass ones!

I'm also in awesome moods lately, it's like so much of our life is coming together. We agree on almost everything and are just happy.